CHARLES H. NELSON, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS FORMER DIRECTOR AND PRESENT TRUSTEE OF TROPICAL LAND COMPANY, A CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
TROPICAL LAND COMPANY, A CORPORATION; GEORGE A. HOLZ AND FRED A. CHRISTIE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS FORMER DIRECTORS AND PRESENT TRUSTEES OF TROPICAL LAND COMPANY, A CORPORATION; SAVAGE REALTY COMPANY, A CORPORATION, AND FLORIDA AND CAPE COD REALTY COMPANY, A CORPORATION, APPELLEES
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Nelson sought receivership, accounting, and injunction against Tropical Land Company and its directors. Florida and Cape Cod Realty Company petitioned to intervene as a party defendant based on advancing funds and holding an assigned contract. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the chancellor's allowance of intervention.
The intervention was properly allowed. Although as an abstract proposition of law a party cannot be made a party defendant in a suit in personam over the objection of the complainant without showing a trust relation or sufficient interest, the trial court's discretion in allowing intervention was not clearly erroneous in light of the particular facts of the case.
“As an abstract proposition of law appellant's contention is well supported; but these rules, like all others, are controlled by the facts arising in the particular case.”
Establishes that while intervention rules are well-established in the abstract, their application depends on specific case facts.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceNelson brought suit in equity against Holz, Christie, and Tropical Land Company. Florida and Cape Cod Realty Company sought intervention based on two …
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Per Curiam.
Nelson, the appellant, brought suit in Chancery against the appellees Holz, Christie and Tropical Land Company for receiver, accounting and injunction. Appellees here, defendants below, filed their answer admitting some of the allegations of the bill, and denying others. In this state of the case appellee, Florida and Cape Cod Realty Company, Inc., filed its petition to intervene and be made a party defendant, because (1) it had advanced money to pay certain obligations for abstracts and taxes, and (2) it held by assignment a certain contract made by Turner and TIolz for the sale and purchase of certain lands. It appearing that the purpose of the intervention as to this contract is to have it reformed and made the contract of the Tropical Land Company, it having been executed by Holz personally.
A motion to strike the petition to intervene was denied and a demurrer to said petition was overruled. Appeal is prosecuted from both orders.
Appellant contends here that this is a suit in personam and not in rem, and that one cannot' be made a party defendant in such suit over the objection of the complainant; that no trust relation is shown to exist between petitioner and the parties to the suit, consequently the petition should have 'been denied and that sufficient interest bn the part of the petitioner in the subject-matter in litigation is not shown to support its petition for intervention.
As an abstract proposition of law appellant’s contention is well supported; but these rules, like all others, are controlled by the facts arising in the particular case. We have examined the record carefully in. the light of the questions raised and as against the discretion and ruling of the Chancellor in allowing intervention it is not clearly made to appear that error was committed.
Affirmed.
Whitfield, P. J., and Terrell and Buford, J. J., concur. Ellis, C. J., and Strum and Brown, J. J., concur in the opinion.
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Singletary v. Mann, 157 Fla. 37 (Fla. 1946)…Gas Co. v. Newton, (D. C. N. Y.), 256 Fed. 238, it was said that it must be a legal interest; but that definition obviously is not accurate, because one having merely an equitable interest may intervene. See Nelson v. Tropical Land Co. 93 Fla. 203, 111 So. 512, for an example of an intervention by one having an equitable claim. In Caldwell v. Guardian Trust So. (C. C. A. 8) 26 Fed. (2nd) 218, it was said that the interest must be direct and immediate, not remote. Ebersbach v. Ringling, 100 Fla. 1270, 131…
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Mrs. Florence Daugherty v. Latham, 139 Fla. 477 (Fla. 1939)…d Gas Co. v. Newton (D. C. N. Y.) 256 Fed. 238, it was said that it must be a legal interest; but that definition obviously is not accurate, because one having merely an equitable interest may intervene. See Nelson v. Tropical Land Co., 93 Fla. 203, 111 So. 512, for an example of an intervention by one having [*492] equitable claim. In Caldwell v. Guardian Trust Co. (C. C. A. 8), 26 Fed. (2d) 218, it was said that the interest must be direct and immediate, not remote. Ebersbach v. Ringling, 100 Fla. 1270,…
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Wogisch v. Tiger, 193 So. 2d 187 (Fla. 4th DCA 1966)…hat intervention involves an exercise of the chancellor’s discretion and his determination will not be disturbed unless error is clearly made to appear. Switow v. Sher, 1939, 136 Fla. 284, 186 So. 519; Nelson v. Tropical Land Co., 1927, 93 Fla. 203, 111 So. 512. It is [*189] manifest that the City of Hollywood reflected such interest in the suit as to entitle it to intervene and file a complaint. It alleged that the hog farm was located within its corporate limits; that the area was thickly populated; and…
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